Chartering desk
East Africa imports its wheat, fertilizer, clinker, coal and sugar by the shipload and exports coal, minerals, cashew and sisal the same way. Maingate Shipping's chartering desk in Mombasa fixes the tonnage for these cargoes: handysize and supramax vessels for the parcel trades, panamax and larger for coal and minerals, and coastal vessels for the short hauls between Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and the Mozambican ports.
The desk works for charterers who need a ship and for owners who need a cargo. Our ship agency experience on the same berths means the fixtures we propose reflect what the port can actually do: draft, loading rates, working hours, congestion and the documentary rhythm of the receiver.
Wheat and maize from the Black Sea, Argentina and Australia into Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Djibouti; fertilizer from the Gulf, Morocco and China; clinker from the Gulf and Asia; coal from Richards Bay and Mozambique; sugar, rice, steel and bagged cargoes on the same routes. Outbound, coal from Mtwara and Nacala, mineral concentrates from Dar es Salaam and Beira, and the agricultural exports of the coast.
The charterer's enquiry with cargo, laycan and terms goes to owners and operators who trade the region. Offers are compared on freight, vessel particulars, performance history and the port's ability to work the ship. Negotiation runs to a recap, the charter party is drawn on a standard form with the agreed riders, and the desk stays with the voyage from fixture to final settlement.
Port agency, notices of readiness, statements of facts, laytime calculation and demurrage or despatch settlement all sit in the same office as the chartering desk. Charterers who fix with us and appoint us as agent get one file from enquiry to closing accounts.
This desk is part of Maingate Shipping Limited, the Mombasa ship agency, crewing and brokerage house that has attended vessels at Kenyan ports since 2020 from its office at Express Building, Moi Avenue. Port agency at Mombasa and Lamu is handled by the company's own boarding officers; calls elsewhere in Africa run through the Maingate agency line under one DA format and one reporting style; Kenyan seafarers are recruited and managed from the same office; and the chartering desk fixes the tonnage that brings East Africa its wheat, fertilizer, clinker and fuel.
Principals deal with one desk for the whole voyage, and every service is agreed in writing before it is performed.
Yes. Spot voyage charters for one parcel are the most common instruction, and the desk quotes on receipt of the cargo details and laycan.
Yes. Owners with tonnage open in the region send positions to the desk, and we match them to charterers' enquiries and to the cargoes moving through the ports we serve as agents.
Brokerage commission is agreed at the fixture in the usual market form and stated in the charter party.
Receipts behind every line, a record behind every stoppage, a desk behind every call.
Related desks on the same instruction line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091